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‘Were you in an accident?’

‘So, you can’t walk at all?’

I’ve been visibly disabled by RA – deformities, contractures, scars – for most of my life and have used a power wheelchair for over 30 years. This means I get questions about it from total strangers. Sometimes, it’s the person next to me in the elevator, sometimes a random stranger starting a chat while I’m reading a book in the park. Most recently, it was a nurse asking the question while I was visiting my mother in the hospital. This made me worry about the nursing staff’s observational skills, as I’m pretty sure RA deformities in the hands don’t look anything like the result of an accident!”

The rest of the post is here.